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Syl: Chapter 330
🕑 Added 2025-10-27 06:15:02 +0000 UTCChapter 330: Kept Busy
For the next few days, similar events occurred. Every time I wanted to see the magma forge, something would come up, and I'd be forced into resolving some emergency for the island.
I obviously had my suspicions that something was up, but Vanessa seemed so distraught that I was finding it hard to believe it was foul play. Considering that I didn't actually need the refined deepstone, I didn't press on it, and with each of these requests, I kept hoping I'd eventually run into a mermen.
Plus, if it involved any monsters, it was worth good experience points, and soon I had reached level twenty-six!
<Class Experience threshold reached. Elementalist is now LV 26.>
<10 Skill Points are now available.>
Just four more to go. I wonder when my next racial level will be? I know I put it to the lowest distribution, but now that I'm a tier-five monster, it will probably take ages.
I also had a sneaking suspicion that once I reached my milestone for Elementalist, I'd see my class-race distribution set back to fifty-fifty by Gramps. I was honestly still surprised he even let me change it this way in the first place, and I wondered if it was some agreement he had reached with Mother.
As for the tasks I was doing for Vanessa, they weren't all monster exterminations. At one point, they wanted me to clear out some land, which I did so with [Air Magic].
Another mission was to retrieve resources from a nearby wreck. The first time this happened, I had a small crew to help me, but after that, I was allowed to do similar tasks solo, as they effectively just held me down.
Thanks to [Hydrokinesis], I could singlehandedly do almost anything underwater, including harvesting, catching, and gathering all at once. My control over my magic was spectacular, making the surrounding area effectively my domain.
And so this became my life for a bit. Of course, when I was alone, I made progress towards creating [Terra Step], and when I hit a roadblock or grew bored, I would switch to [Warp]. Also, whenever possible, I would use [Elemental Step] to increase its proficiency, as I wanted a big payout when I finally used [Skill Deconstruct] on it.
Of course, after every mission, I would be invited to stay with Vanessa. There were times when even [Roleplay] was suggesting I accept, but I would always disable the skill and ultimately reject her.
Truthfully, I was growing a little concerned with how the skill wanted me to behave around her, and the warning I'd received to not lose myself in the immersion from Loreleia was still fresh in my mind.
As for Vee, aside from her relentless teasing about this situation, she had actually found a few islands that were now on her shortlist. However, since we weren't settling down yet, she was still looking to see if she could find anything better.
Her quest, on the other hand, recently got an extra exclamation mark added to it, although neither of us knew how to actually approach it. We'd come to the supposed location, but we hadn't seen even a whiff of the mermen, leading us to a dead end unless the quest provided more information.
We even tried openly lamenting our frustrations, hoping it would cause an update in the quest if one of the gods happened to be watching, but it fell on deaf ears. Either that, or Unc was being blocked by Gramps or Mother, which, obviously, we could do nothing about.
On the positive side, I was pretty happy with my progress and had several skills increase during this time.
<[Elemental Step (Basic) LV 4]
[Aquatic Finesse LV 5]
[Elemental Shift LV 8]
[Identity Fabrication LV 8]>
My traits didn't see as much progress, but there was a little bit of movement, and I got an unexpected level in [Core Storage] with all the slime I was storing away, thanks to the influx of monster meat. I was once again well supplied and could easily detonate a worm or two without worry.
With [Core Storage] now at level seven, I was curious if it received any new features beyond its maximum capacity increasing dramatically, as per usual. An earlier upgrade had granted me the ability to sort and keep my slime in various states, but this time, nothing immediately jumped out.
I kept trying a few things out and was going to write it off as just a size upgrade when I suddenly stored a [Sub-Core] inside of the space. It was something I had tried so haphazardly that I hadn't expected any result, and yet I was suddenly proven wrong.
With this, I don't need to worry about my minimum slime size too much—I can keep them in storage if I really need to!
What was interesting, however, was that they remained connected and active while in storage. I immediately tried a few experiments, like seeing if they could still help with spellcasting, but sadly, they couldn't interact with the outside world at all.
The one thing they could do was interact with all the slime in my storage and perform refinements, density changes, and even craft slime weapons for me. This feature alone made me ecstatic, as now if I left some workers in there, I could skip needing to withdraw slime to manipulate it.
I did try to see if I could have them cast spells in storage, but that didn't work. If it had, I would have had a way to train in secret, but other than my slime, everything seemed to be in a state of stasis, including Mana.
I was a little upset, as I had a rather fun idea of casting massive spells inside my storage and then ejecting them. To my opponents, they would appear as if they were instantly manifested, which I had to assume would shatter any of their expectations.
Since they were the newest of the bunch, and their Vee wrestling duties were long passed, I threw Lambda, Mu, Nu, and Xi into storage to be the dedicated crafting team. Depending on how it worked out, I would throw more in there, or possibly buy some more [Sub-Cores].
If I didn't need to save points for uncapping, I'd buy more right now. Ugh, this sucks… I need a way to earn more trait points other than leveling.
Other than that, the only progress was my derived elements, which hit a rather significant milestone.
<Proficiency gained. [Derived Element (Magma) LV 9] improved to [Derived Element (Magma) LV MAX].>
<Maximum derived affinity reached, would you like to incorporate the affinity permanently?>
I saw no reason not to incorporate it immediately, so I did, permanently gaining it and cleaning up my massive profile in one swoop.
Magma had gotten there sooner than the others, thanks to it being my test subject for taking apart magical skills… which I'd forgotten about due to recent discoveries. I still wanted to get back to it, but I hadn't really found an opportune moment to cast the spells.
As for my derived steam and dust elements, they were at level eight and seven, respectively, from just passively going up. I knew I'd need to work on them eventually to create [Intermediate Elemental Magic] as they needed to be the same levels as my ice and lightning magic skills.
It's fine. I'll do all of it on the side when we're creating our island home.
I was getting into a bit of a groove, and the magma forge had almost left my mind, until one day Vanessa suddenly brought it up.
"Thanks again for all your hard work, Sylvain," she said, fluttering her eyebrows. "I think you've more than earned a break and a visit to the magma forge."
"Really?" I replied, quite shocked that I wasn't being thrown into another situation as the universal solution.
"Yes, really," Vanessa said with a pout. "I didn't want to use up so much of your time, but you effortlessly solved so many problems for us as if they were nothing. We were concerned that you'd leave us, and so we wanted to make the most of the limited time we had."
Is that the reason? I guess that makes sense…
"I have no current plans of running off," I chuckled. "Honestly, I'm still looking forward to some more dangerous missions."
"Maybe after this we can see about that…" Vanessa replied, looking a little lost in thought.
I was escorted up to a workshop that had been built into the side of the volcano, with Vanessa humming the entire way there. Compared to the rest of the town, it seemed out of place, as it was made with what looked like the best materials available. If anything, its quality almost reminded me of one of the dwarven forges I'd visited.
"This is where the magic happens," Vanessa explained excitedly.
The way they were harnessing the magma was different from what I expected. Considering the losses they suggested in the process, I thought they were dunking the deepstone into the molten rock to refine it.
What they were actually doing was completely different: they had channels dug out that could be opened and closed to release the molten rock, and they simply used it in place of fire. I watched as one of the workers was currently refining some deepstone, but he appeared to just heat it up until it was soft, then hammer it into a bar shape.
I was immediately confused. Was this all there was to it? Why did it need to be magma? Where was the loss in material? None of this made any sense at all; in fact, my current impression was that this was a scam set up by the settlement to steal deepstone on the side.
While I was ruminating on this, Vanessa, who had still been humming to herself, suddenly started singing. Her voice was melodic and beautiful, like nothing I'd heard before. Even the elven virtuoso Dewdrop felt like an amateur in comparison.
Even though I had to admit the performance was delightful, this was definitely not the time or place for it. I then noticed the workers were lost in an entranced rapture and suspected something was wrong.
<[Beguile] has been detected.>
What!?
<[Allure] has been resisted.>
The first notification had startled me, the second nearly drove me to a murderous rage. I was split seconds away from attacking Vanessa when [Roleplay] suddenly screamed at me to stop. I'd never felt it behave like this before, so I restrained my murderous intent and tried to see what it wanted, causing it to gain an unexpected level-up.
<Proficiency gained. [Roleplay LV 6] improved to [Roleplay LV 7].>
Seeing that, I decided to trust the skill and let it take full command despite my paranoia. I did still have my hands tightly on the leash, ready to pull back control and unleash my full, slimy wrath if needed.
[Roleplay] had Sylvain take on a relaxed and delighted appearance, his shoulders slumping slightly and his gaze filled with adoration.
I was wondering what the point of all this was when Vanessa finally stopped singing and approached. She caressed Sylvain's face while smiling like a predator that had caught its prey.
"I was beginning to worry that I'd lost my touch, but it looks like even archmages are putty in my hands," she said with a giggle.
Since I had relinquished control, it was almost like I was watching it happen to someone else, which made the experience a lot easier to stomach. If she had touched "me" with that fiendish smirk, I would have fired a point-blank [Fireball] right then and there.
I guess this is the full power of [Roleplay]... but I wonder what it hopes to accomplish by playing along?
"Sylvain, dear, can you please hand me the rest of your deepstone?" Vanessa asked.
"Of course, it's all yours!" Sylvain said, positively delighted to receive a request.
I watched as [Roleplay] had Sylvain take out another bag, filled with more deepstone. It wasn't all I had, which made me feel relieved that [Roleplay] was still on my side.
Vanessa was delighted and threw the bag at one of the workers.
"Refine it immediately! We have places to be," she commanded.
"Yes, mistress!" the worker replied, throwing his full effort into refining all the deepstone he had.
Another worker began collecting and distributing the deepstone into two piles, with the lion's share evidently going towards Vanessa. Immediately, I understood where the sixty-percent loss was truly happening.
While I was watching this, I couldn't help but wonder if this was the reason why [Roleplay] had wanted me to go home with her all those times. Had it somehow detected her treachery? But what was her ultimate goal?
I guess I'll just have to watch and follow to see where this goes. The only silver lining is I don't feel like I'm participating in this, only an outside observer… Is this what Loreleia warned me about?
Comments
Zorgdub
When Vanessa suddenly started singing, I knew that my suspicions were correct. The notifications merely confirmed that. But it's only after reading her talk about archmages that a new idea came to me: merefolks use their powers through songs, don't they? Syl's quarry might have been closer than he thought all along.
Zorgdub
> I was allowed to do similar tasks solo, as they effectively just held me down. I think that should be "held me back". I don't remember "holding down" ever being used to mean that. Or maybe it was meant to be "slowed me down", that would work too.
Bailey Tucker
Oh, I just assumed evil bard, tbh
Bailey Tucker
"Vee teased me relentlessly" ABOUT WHAT?? It's been WEEKS and she explained NOTHING? But continued to make fun of her? Seriously? Can you imagine having a friend you see every day and knowing they are blatantly unaware of something making their life difficult, but you decided to mock them relentlessly without helping or explaining? And now imagine that's your only friend. Then also imagine that friend is your only lifeline to your own humanity. Vee is worse than Trixie now, and I'm REALLY starting to dislike her which sucks since she seems pretty ingrained in the rest of the story.
Jamie Mann
Thank you for the chapter!
87894354
Syl would view it as petty and small, but that's because Syl is hilariously ignorant of things like "money" and "price". It looks like Vanessa has been hoovering up 60% of the super-mega-high-value deepstone mined in that region. We don't know for how long it's been going on for. But... uh, that's probably a lot of wealth they've syphoned off.
Hayden Leech
“Allure failed” Huh. That’s neat. *shoots fifteen sanguine dream needles into her back the moment she turns around*
Summer Coff
...surely that's not the entire grift. That's so... petty, and small.
JW Saxby
Thought so 🙂↔️ Tftc 🍻
JAndy
She's obviously a mermaid
Danny
Everyone seems to be thinking Vanessa is a Siren (drawing an obvious conclusion from her hypnotic song)….. but with her wandering around passing off as human she feels more like a Selkie (who also have a beautiful hypnotic voice and well known for taking human form) ……. Guess we will see if Sylvian stumbles across a seal fur????
CataFlan
I'm guessing they want some smithing slaves...
87894354
Sylvain: "I was told that the Adventurers Guild was a big scam. They just take the majority of your loot!" Everyone else: "Oh Sylvain, you're so silly." Sylvian: *discovers that the operation (which is supported by the Adventurers Guild) is a big scam taking the majority of the loot.* Everyone else: (•`__´•)
Engineer4God
Tank oo fur da chap!
87894354
Traditionally, she's supposed to explain her objective using the [Evil Monologue] skill (which dastardly villains like her receive for free). Maybe she'll tell us that it's to help her mermen friends against some strange monster crab. I'm guessing that Syl would get a lead on Crabby McCrabFace's location.
87894354
It's great. Orange slimes come with some pretty powerful instincts... and Syl is very much ok with them.
Monster Royalty
Also soul mastery for the win !
Monster Royalty
Well this probably answered my question yesterday about whether sub cores have storage in them thanks to core collective . If Syl can now put the sub cores in storage they are not targeted by core collective….. which seems wrong ?
BlastYoBoots
Can I just say how much I love, LOVE, how Syl is quantifying how much slime they have stored up by how many giant worms they could detonate? XD
enderman
Pretty sure arch-pyromancers have been mentioned as examples of class progression.
Garnet of Flame
Is this the first time archmage has been mentioned as a title for powerful mages? Okay the merfolk hijacking the humans’ deepstone operation makes a lot of sense in hindsight, it’s probably impossible for them to refine it underwater. I am not ruling out “sex with attractive & powerful people” as one of Vanessa’s actual goals beyond the deepstone conspiracy. If only because she is going to be in for a very big surprise when she finally gets Sylvain to bed… and not the one she was hoping for.
Aclys
all in due time
Aclys
I suspect she was just using normal singing and less forceful forms of charm before, and since none of it failed to go completely over syl's head, metaphorically, there was no resistance check?
Nemesis
She probably expected to be able to eventually earn enough trust or lust to invite him around for some 'fun', during which his defences would be lower and she could charm him more easily
Oliver
So Vanessa is a siren?
Magnadra
I was wondering why Syl didn't get a System notification with all the singing before but it seams she didn't get attacken enough to beat her passiv resistens
Michael Zinkstein
Thanks for the chapter
Plateworm
Tftc
enderman
I guess that Sirens songs can slowly chip away at mental resistance or that Vanessa got impatient from the lack of progress and finally decided to act
Kenneth Welever
As wash once said "You have challenged the primordial slime of might and magic. You are under leveled and overfucked for this challenge. Your initiative is void and your life is nul.... You just don't know it yet."
Kenneth Welever
Vicious. I like it.
Alexander Andrews
Dang I kinda wish Syl ignored Roleplay and just... Slime slapped the Siren.
Hayden Leech
There is probably a merman experiment. If they count as a monster race.
Hayden Leech
“She caressed Sylvain's face while smiling like a predator that had caught its prey.” *Hand sticks* Sylvain smiles. Like a predator that caught its prey. I wonder if Syl could force heal slime down her throat to both keep her alive under telepathic interrogation and suppress her voice powers.
Daniel Mountain
Oh dear. I smell a siren.
Sawyer Anderson
Gonna favorite and comment this, because I 100% agree.
Kennyevilmonkey
What if she isn't just a mermaid, but also a fellow experiment? Could be interesting.
Kennyevilmonkey
A few of us guessed it in the comment of the previous chapters. Because of all her humming, singing, and excessive flirting.
Hayden Leech
It’s actually kind of chilling. We have syl, this analytical monster intelligence basically watching out of the eyes of “sylvain” a constructed guise that can act nearly autonomously to avoid suspicion. But syl is basically a passenger just waiting for a moment to strike lol. Scary!
Isabel Boyer
TFTC!! Is Vanessa a mermaid??? Why did it take me this long to put that together lol
Nemesis
So, Vanessa is a mermaid then? Are they secretly scamming deepstone from the very people who use it to fight them?
CherMi
Vee did basically what she was upset about Trixie doing and withheld information. If Syl wasn't almost invulnerable, the whole fake romance could have ended in disaster. I hope it gets pointed out to Vee, because she's been acting like a jerk.
dtape467
she's a siren, isn't she?
CringeWorthyStudios
Well that was remarkably predictable. Kinda curious what her objective is though… Thanks for the chapter!
CataFlan
TFTC!
Kasamuri
Thanks for the chapter!
Shai182
TFTC!
Wensber
Thanks for the chapter!
